This blog is dedicated to:
A) improving fiscal oversight, management and operational efficiency of the 1) Lake County, Florida School District, 2) the separate Lake County Government, 3) the North Lake County Hospital District, PLUS 4) the operations of the independently elected Constitutional Officers (Sheriff, Tax Collector, Assessor, County Clerk, etc.) and also
B) Improving fiscal and management effectiveness of other local government agencies and programs spending taxpayer funds.
To read older articles, select them from the categories or archives listings. We also recommend listening to Ralph Smith's Lake County (FL) Round Table radio show every Wed. at 1pm to 2pm on WLBE AM-790.

August 2018

August 25, 2018

To make Publix shopping easier, I created a floor map of goods and their aisle locations to use for shopping. This Excel version is for the Tavares, FL Publix at HWY 19 and CR 561. Download it, and create your own version for your local grocery store and shopping preferences.
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August 06, 2018

Tavares, FL August 6, 2018 This is the personal opinion of Vance Jochim, based upon the details I provide. In the past, we wrote about how a past Eustis City Council and Mayor Mike Holland pushed through a sweetheart deal to use taxpayer funds to buy the rundown Acie's Barber Shop building in downtown Eustis, then cut a sweetheart deal with Holland's friend who owned the 1884 restaurant to keep a small pocket park and sell the actual building to them for hardly any down payment (Sweetheart deal #1). There were all sorts of legal documents and I have copies of them. The owners were supposed to start making payments AFTER A YEAR (Sweetheart deal #2) PLUS invest $90,000+ (from memory) in reconditioning the rundown building to rent it out. I wrote this article on Jan. 26, 2016 here. But, the 1884 owners reneged on amounts due, and I was told this year by the City Manager Ron Niebert that the city took the building back. Now, with that background of giving a sweetheart deal to a private business, here is the next Eustis sweetheart deal. The Eustis City Council and the Sharp's Mobile Home Park Sweetheart Deal Starting in...
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Fed up with bad roads or traffic jams in Lake County or your city while officials spend mega-millions on: - new buildings, - splash parks, - interest payments to pay for non-infrastructure projects, - bike trails, - brick roads, - huge benefit increases including massive retiree benefits, - employee raises costing more than the cost of living, - staff time on private projects like Wellness Way, - "lifestyle" projects, - spending on downtown city projects more than road repairs, - social welfare programs, - free buses that lose money on every trip, - police radios ($18-million), - bureaucratic "required" studies, - huge parks, - trails, - lawsuits, - events and - local charities? Instead of cutting back on those, the Lake County Board (and cities) plan to hike your fuel taxes (it is coming). Everything else, it seems, is a priority over roads. In Colorado, citizens have formed a tax rebellion movement called #FixOurDamnRoads" and collected over 150,000 signatures provided to the Secretary of State. They demand the roads be fixed WITHOUT ANY TAX INCREASES Perhaps we need such a #FixOurDamnRoads program for Lake County. If you see a Lake Country traffic jam or bad road problems, take a picture...
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